1.13 Assassin

This thread is for discussion of the Assassin in Diablo II.[/HR]
Aside from creating a few Trappers here and there, I have not played much of the Assassin in my day. With that in mind, I have called upon the help of our very own Asn expert, blood-doll. With the recent PTR Patch 1.13, the Asn has received only one buff, albeit a very general, multi-purpose one; though it has also received a buff in another, indirect form.

Official Blizzard Quote:

Assassin
-Shadow Master - Increased resistance range per point from 5-80 to 5-90.

Aside from a buff to their trusty companion, the Shadow Master, Melee Asn's will now be more viable to play in Hell due to Iron Maiden being removed. Because they are very light and aren't made specifically for tanking, they won't be receiving return damage from said curse now, giving more possibilities for future Asn builds. Something that b-d stressed to me was that a big part in playing the type of sin is that it all depends on reaching certain breakpoints. With that in mind, this build is highly dependent on the gear being used, so you need to make sure you adhere to the gear guide to the letter. I've tried to leave the technical info out as much as possible so anyway can understand it. Here's the specific one that we chose:

Strength: This depends on how rich you are in-game. However, as of now, you can respec your character if you overfill your Strength. Basically, you only need enough Strength to use all of your items.

Dexterity: This also depends on how rich you are in-game. However, as of now, you can respec your character if you overfill your Dex. Basically, you really only need enough Dex to use all of your items.

Get yourself a vampire gaze socketed with an Um, this way, you can disregard fade, or at least it lessens the amount of damage you would be taking from elemental hits if you disregard fade, which is what I often do. It also has that leech, which you need for my build.

A fortitude/duress armor. Fortitude later, Duress is the poor man's fort. Once more, it lessens the need for fade. Both are also great melee armors, and work incredibly well with the build I've got.

Two bartucs, ditch one of the jade talons. This way, you can utilize martial arts more effectively, and much faster. This offsets the reduced resistances, since you'll be able to steal life quicker, and more of it. Plus, you'll be doing more damage to boot.

Agreed on the gloves, however.

Dungos for belt, though. You need the reduced damage, helps work through those melee encounters. Since the assassin is fragile as is, the DR helps keep you alive, as does the vitality.

Highlords for the ammy, the skills and IAS help incredibly. Once more, lets you dish out more damage faster, and steal more life faster.

BK ring and a Ravenfrost. That cannot be frozen is completely crucial to an assassin. The BK helps immensely as well, as the life leech will save your ass.

And, Gore riders for boots. There is really no alternative to them, the crushing blow lets you take down bosses incredibly fast.

Now, the key to this build, is Burst of Speed.

It's built around weening yourself off fade, so you can fully utilize BOS to kill much faster. The gore riders come into effect here, since you're landing more blows, and thus, have many more chances to trigger a crushing blow. Hence, this build is great for boss killing.

The life leech I was ranting about also comes into play, as do the bartucs. With them, the burst of speed allows you to deal significant amounts of damage quickly, and lets you steal life quickly. When combined with the damage reduction given by the vampire gaze and the verdungos, it basically lets you stand in melee combat, so long as you're consistently landing hits, you can gain more life than you lose.

For skills, I put 20 into Pheonix, Claws of thunder, and fists of fire. Blades of ice deals too little damage to be useful.

I also use the same layout for the shadow disciples skill tree, cept for Burst of speed, and Weapon block. I usually put about 10 into each, since the diminishing returns seem to kick in around here. Weapon block is necessary, since once more, you're in heavy melee combat. It, along with the damage reduction, keeps you alive long enough to steal back life using burst of speed, and your claws.

However, for traps, I only put the skills necessary for Blade Shield. This skill helps immensely, since it deals a percentage of your weapon damage. When in heavy melee combat, basically evetything around you is constantly damaged.

.... I should write a martial arts assassin guide.

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Quote from "Sixen" »

"One in every 10 million people can potentially have a headache from this pill." God forbid she is the 0.000000001% of having a headache.

My basic philosophy toward the melee Assassin is similar to Zhar's. I dump most stat points into dexterity and bring that attack rating up as high as possible. Then you wanna get all the life leech you can get. I had some 10% Dracs once that were pretty damn sweet, among a combination of other items that had my life leech up to 60 something percent.

So basically, instead of lots of vitality, I just make sure my chance to hit is very high so when life is low, about three direct hits on just about any monsters (not skeletons) would bring my life completely to full. That's my own form of Vitality itself.

I think Fade is completely useless just because it's easy to eventually max out resistances through items alone. For this though I actually do prefer Jade Talons over Bartucs. I also prefer Burst of Speed which leaves no room for Fade as one overrides the other. Increased attack speed + high attack rating + life leech....this is how I survived Hell. I could never do quite as much damage as other builds and classes, but at least I didn't have some cookie cutter build.

I'm still not sure anymore about Phoenix Strike. It's nice in Hell to have options between cold and fire damage though with all the immunities. But next time I might just skip Phoenix Strike altogether and put those points into Venom.

Yeah but increasing your dexterity for the Assassin increases attack rating as well as the overall damage done. Venom can be a little frustrating since it lasts about .4 seconds (?) and you have to reactivate it more than Burst of Speed. My problem with Phoenix Strike is the lighting part of it. And this may sound kind of dumb, but it's hard to get just two orbs sometimes when you're attacking really fast. I either go left click, right click really fast to get the meteor, or hold left click until I got all three orbs for cold damage. I don't mind not getting just to the two orbs, but I wish they would drop the lighting prerequisite for Phoenix Strike and just simplify it between fire or cold depending on one orb or three. Thus also allowing a couple more points to be put into just Phoenix or Claws of Fire or Blades of Ice. I also hate, and this is one thing ES rightly corrected, how the orbs are so short lived. Aesthetically they are cool and I wanna just stand in town with them circling around me. But it's also nice just to have your orbs charged up and not so frantically trying to find a monster to use them on. Ya know what I mean, string bean?

Eh, good point, forgot about that.
Even increases your defence, to boot.

That was what really got me with venom, if you had any other poison charms in your inventory, they became useless. Since only .4 seconds of their damage would be used, the rest was just wasted.

Eh, no I know what you mean. It was a total bitch to get those two orbs. Only way I could get it was to just attack twice, hope both connected, then use a finishing move. This way, I could consistently drop meteors, and hopefully, the lightning as well.

*nods*
Was something I wasn't too fond of either. I always tried to stack up massive combos of chargeups, max I could ever get to safely was 3 consecutive skills being charged, and only when surrounded by monsters. If they were spread out, you were boned.

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Quote from "Sixen" »

"One in every 10 million people can potentially have a headache from this pill." God forbid she is the 0.000000001% of having a headache.

That's especially unfair since by the time you get to Hell, or heck even Nightmare, that 50 extra damage for 4 seconds isn't doing you that much good anyway. I swear the Assassin has always been D2's bitch when it comes to balance. I realize Trapsins would disagree, and that a few pros that know how to build good Kicksins would also disagree, but c'bon! There's just no room in that world of snobby battle.net freaks for my humble Sin character build.

sixen
weapon switch on the cheaper setup shouldn't be a hoto.. ideally would be cta but you could use:•two prebuff claws for casting venom or burst of speed•demonlimb for enchanting yourself •(if you had high dragon talon) runeword lawbringer (in fast weapon) for chance to cast decrep•(if you had high dragon talon) runeword crescent moon (in a fast weapon) for chance to static•(hel'd) gavel of pain to cast amp from•lower resist wand to cast lower resist•lifetap wand to cast lifetap•alibaba to mf when something is about to die
but hoto wouldn't do the build any good though except for skills which can be better gotten through claws.

the amulet on the rich build must be over 15% fcr to hit 65% (11 frame) teleporting speed.

also the fools mod claw on that rich build must have 40ias and the bartucs on the cheaper build must have shael.
bos must be lvl 11 if there is just 40ias. (level 7 was if if you use an ias jewel in the helm or armor of the cheap build.)

also you left out my favorite part on the rich build!
the fools claw was meant to have chance to cast amp damage or alternately for the cheap build use atmas amulet (you had that) or the unique thresher reaper's toll for merc.crushing blow with decrep or amp damage is just amazing.

also dragon talon does not need to be at lvl 24. if the user chooses to use it, then it should be taken to a multiple of six with gear on (get to level 6, 12, 18, 24, 30 etc) so that you're getting that extra kick.

shadow master does not need to be at lvl 25. (i hardly ever put more than 1 point to it.. i just said that lvl 17 and 25 are breakpoint levels... so that if you've got your shadow at lvl 16 with your end game gear, then you might as well put a point since the shadow's gear improves at lvl 17.

also if you chose to extra points could be put to death sentry for the increased radius on corpse explosion or alternately one could put points to fire blast so that each sentry would fire more times.

(PS GOOD JOB IM SORRY FOR BEING SO CONFUSING, I KNOW THAT WAS AN AGONIZING CHAT)

Quote from "Zhar" »

Totally disagree on the gear you've got there.

Get yourself a vampire gaze socketed with an Um, this way, you can disregard fade

fade is left at lvl 1 in that build up there.. it was meant to use bos
(would only use fade on that when teleporting to a location to reduce any curses that might be applied while on route.)

also life steal (excluding that from lifetap) doesnt help THAT much in hell due to the damage reduce that mobs have in hell and the penalties of life and mana steal (2/3 cut).

Quote from "Zhar" »

A fortitude/duress armor. Fortitude later, Duress is the poor man's fort. Once more, it lessens the need for fade. Both are also great melee armors, and work incredibly well with the build I've got.

love duress for early levels but once you've gotten used to enigma you can't go back.. i use a teleport ammy on my sins until i can get enigma.
just love the mobility and positioning that it affords.

havent been into going for high damage since 1.09 because of IM.. but might give fort another chance
agree with you that duress owns (one of my ptr sins uses it atm).

Quote from "Zhar" »

Two bartucs, ditch one of the jade talons. This way, you can utilize martial arts more effectively, and much faster. This offsets the reduced resistances, since you'll be able to steal life quicker, and more of it. Plus, you'll be doing more damage to boot.

the build above was meant to hit 5 frames (2 hits in 10 frames).
as long as it has 40ias and lvl 11 burst of speed with gear then it will.
it's fastest speed you're not gonna get faster with another bartuc. though it would be more damage and stats.

would never go out in hell without max res.. no matter how much lifesteal i had.

Quote from "Zhar" »

Dungos for belt, though. You need the reduced damage, helps work through those melee encounters. Since the assassin is fragile as is, the DR helps keep you alive, as does the vitality.

Highlords for the ammy, the skills and IAS help incredibly. Once more, lets you dish out more damage faster, and steal more life faster.

BK ring and a Ravenfrost. That cannot be frozen is completely crucial to an assassin. The BK helps immensely as well, as the life leech will save your ass.

i agree that you need the ravenfrost for cbf (cannot be frozen).
i'd rather use other things besides highlords for a phoenix build unless i absolutely needed the ias..
but for other builds (tiger strike for instance) i could see using it for the deadly strike.

really, it doesn't matter what gear you use as long as you have max resists, max (or close) dr, high block, decent ar, and hit your ias, fhr, and fcr breakpoints.
those are the goals to reach. how you do it is variable. (and i like that!)

Quote from "Zhar" »

And, Gore riders for boots. There is really no alternative to them, the crushing blow lets you take down bosses incredibly fast.

goblin toes has more cb than gore riders.
gore riders are acceptable also if you have enough cb in other places.. gives the addes bonus of deadly strike and frw (though deadly strike won't work on kicks).

Quote from "Zhar" »

Now, the key to this build, is Burst of Speed.

It's built around weening yourself off fade, so you can fully utilize BOS to kill much faster. The gore riders come into effect here, since you're landing more blows, and thus, have many more chances to trigger a crushing blow. Hence, this build is great for boss killing.

any build can have max attack speeds regardless of whether or not you use fade or burst of speed. you just have to work harder in your claw and other gear choices when using fade to make sure you hit them.

Quote from "Zhar" »

I also use the same layout for the shadow disciples skill tree, cept for Burst of speed, and Weapon block. I usually put about 10 into each, since the diminishing returns seem to kick in around here. Weapon block is necessary, since once more, you're in heavy melee combat. It, along with the damage reduction, keeps you alive long enough to steal back life using burst of speed, and your claws.

weapon block and burst of speed just need to be at the correct levels to hit your 60% block (lvl 26) and whatever ias you need to hit max fpa with your attacks
no need to throw extra points away (though you're right that it's around lvl 8-10 claw block that you'll need to get 26 with most gear).
burst of speed can usually be left at lvl 1 (and supplemented with gear) if you're using two fast claws. using a fast claw (blade talon, greater talon, runic talon) and a slow one like wrist sword means that you might need to put more than 1. however, just figure out how much you need
(you can use this calculator) and don't put more than you need.

.... I should write a martial arts assassin guide.

despite nickpicking would like to read it
think you've got a lot of good reasoning.

Quote from "Siaynoq" »

My basic philosophy toward the melee Assassin is similar to Zhar's. I dump most stat points into dexterity and bring that attack rating up as high as possible. Then you wanna get all the life leech you can get. I had some 10% Dracs once that were pretty damn sweet, among a combination of other items that had my life leech up to 60 something percent.

i am obsessed with crushing blow in conjunction with decrep or amp damage, that's why i don't use dracs (except when ubering).
but if you weren't going for amp or decrepify then i agree that they're awesome.

Quote from "Siaynoq" »

So basically, instead of lots of vitality, I just make sure my chance to hit is very high so when life is low, about three direct hits on just about any monsters (not skeletons) would bring my life completely to full. That's my own form of Vitality itself.

sounds too risky for hc.. but fun

Quote from "Siaynoq" »

I think Fade is completely useless just because it's easy to eventually max out resistances through items alone.

fade gives damage reduce per level.. that's what makes it amazing. at high level, it gives you a lot of choices about what gear you can use while still maintaining max damage reduce.

Quote from "Siaynoq" »

Yeah but increasing your dexterity for the Assassin increases attack rating as well as the overall damage done.

I also hate, and this is one thing ES rightly corrected, how the orbs are so short lived

how long do they last on on ES?

Quote from "Zhar" »

edit: Yep, that's what happens. So if you had a charm that gave you 50 poison damage over 4 seconds, it would be reduced to 5 damage over .4 seconds when using venom.

yea don't use psn charms with venom.. i agree unfair.

Quote from "Siaynoq" »

There's just no room in that world of snobby battle.net freaks for my humble Sin character build.

maybe someday

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they'll never see me coming..life is a sequence of tragedies, inconsistent only by fleeting, elusive moments of pleasure,
serving only to ensure absolute vulnerability to the pain of their inevitable absence.

the build above was meant to hit 5 frames (2 hits in 10 frames).
as long as it has 40ias and lvl 11 burst of speed with gear then it will.
it's fastest speed you're not gonna get faster with another bartuc. though it would be more damage and stats.

This part always scares my shit out. How do you know about hits in frames? You realize that sounds crazy, right?

Quote from "blood-doll" »

any build can have max attack speeds regardless of whether or not you use fade or burst of speed. you just have to work harder in your claw and other gear choices when using fade to make sure you hit them.

So burst of speed really is obsolete in light of possible ias from gear alone?

Quote from "blood-doll" »

i am obsessed with crushing blow in conjunction with decrep or amp damage, that's why i don't use dracs (except when ubering).
but if you weren't going for amp or decrepify then i agree that they're awesome.

At least I was sort of on to something with the Dracs. But I was mostly just in it for the life steal.

Quote from "blood-doll" »

sounds too risky for hc.. but fun

I don't even like equipping full juvs. That's part of my problem.

Quote from "blood-doll" »

fade gives damage reduce per level.. that's what makes it amazing. at high level, it gives you a lot of choices about what gear you can use while still maintaining max damage reduce.

Does it say in the skill tree that it does that? I just thought it increased res and that was it.

This part always scares my shit out. How do you know about hits in frames? You realize that sounds crazy, right?

5 fpa is the fastest that the elemental charge ups can get. you can look on that calculator (here) though it doesnt work for dragon talon.

fpa or frames per attack is just a way of saying how fast the attack is.
5 fpa is 5 attacks per second.
the claw attacks look more like 10 fpa but since you attack with both claws (and get 2 charges) it's actually 5 fpa.
you can usually feel the speed increase when you go up or down a frame. (say going from 8 fpa to 7 fpa).

Quote from "Siaynoq" »

So burst of speed really is obsolete in light of possible ias from gear alone?

no
there's a formula that determines your attack speed.
in that formula your ias from your gear is transformed into a lesser number (EIAS).
so that 45 ias, from treachery for instance, is turned into 32.7 EIAS.
burst of speed if it says it gives you 45 increased attack speed, that is 45 (or close) EIAS.

so anyway if you need a certain EIAS to get max attack speed (like say you need 63 EIAS to get max,7 frame, initial dragon talon kicks), then the increases from burst of speed would matter more for you than the increases from gear.
(more on EIAS if you want to see.... which i know you dont.)

Quote from "Siaynoq" »

At least I was sort of on to something with the Dracs. But I was mostly just in it for the life steal.

you're a lifesteal fiend!

Quote from "Siaynoq" »

Does it say in the skill tree that it does that? I just thought it increased res and that was it.

nope it's a hidden bonus

Quote from "Siaynoq" »

The poison dmg last over 2 seconds.

no i meant how long do the "orbs" or stars or charges whatever you call them.. how long do they last on ES

Quote from "Siaynoq" »

How does one possible know that? I have a new found hate for LoD all over again.

someone figured it out a loong time ago.. just been passed around by word of mouth and forums.
some people have even become confused by rumors and think that it breaks your venom damage. but that isnt the case

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they'll never see me coming..life is a sequence of tragedies, inconsistent only by fleeting, elusive moments of pleasure,
serving only to ensure absolute vulnerability to the pain of their inevitable absence.

The new 1.13 character specific posts makes me LAUGH so hard it just made me decide I will never play Diablo 2 ever again!

I know it's always been like that, and changing this could have being a pretty hard job of game redesign. But the news content just perfectly shows how Diablo 2 is a poor design game. Blizzard decision to remove Stats point attribution is a blessing, annyone who could have complained about it should look at the 3 last news on diablofans.com.

How can a Barb/Amazon/Necromancer/Sorc/Assassin, or anything you could think of require the EXACT same stats attribution? Why is there a stats assignment button for Energy? Do someone really put points there? I mean, of course not, but... why? Why is Energy so bad? Why didn't blizzard add some side bonuses from Energy rather than plain mana.

When looking back at Diablo 2, if the game was coming out today, it would receive the worst game of the year award. lol

the builds here don't do the stats the same.
the necro and barb guides do not opt for max block.
now i disagree with that choice.. but i like that it's a choice.

also the amount of dex to get max block varies from character to character; the paladin for instance would require maybe 50-100 hard points to dex get max block (with holy shield), while this dual claw assassin could go almost pure vita.
[an assassin with a shield would want to put points to dex also to get max block, but it would be substantially more dex (like 160-180 hard points) than the paly with holy shield.]

siaynoq prefers making his assassins with high dex.
there are glass cannon amazons that go pure dex.
high strength on a barb or kicker will help with damage.
energy shield sorceresses often have high energy.
they aren't all the same..

a druid blocks slow.
if you're playing a melee druid with a one handed weapon and shield.. you can either use a shield with fast block rate (like whistan's or shael stormshield) and use max block and high faster hit recovery, or alternately you can go for high life (and again faster hit recovery) and forgo blocking all together.
the choice is there.

and if you want to make a melee sorceress you can.
i love d2 for the ability to make innovative, unorthodox builds, and i like that choices are available to make characters to your preference.

that said, i am not opposed to auto stat distribution in d3 as long as there is enough customization elsewhere.

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they'll never see me coming..life is a sequence of tragedies, inconsistent only by fleeting, elusive moments of pleasure,
serving only to ensure absolute vulnerability to the pain of their inevitable absence.

5 fpa is the fastest that the elemental charge ups can get. you can look on that calculator (here) though it doesnt work for dragon talon.

fpa or frames per attack is just a way of saying how fast the attack is.
5 fpa is 5 attacks per second.
the claw attacks look more like 10 fpa but since you attack with both claws (and get 2 charges) it's actually 5 fpa.
you can usually feel the speed increase when you go up or down a frame. (say going from 8 fpa to 7 fpa).

I....understand. :confused:

Quote from "blood-doll" »

you're a lifesteal fiend!

Dude! I almost never use potions.

Quote from "blood-doll" »

nope it's a hidden bonus

Why would they hide that? Honestly.

Quote from "blood-doll" »

no i meant how long do the "orbs" or stars or charges whatever you call them.. how long do they last on ES

Same here, I was one of the few people in LoD who really appreciated the sin.
Totally gimped class when compared to the other classes, but it was without a doubt the most fun to play, and it was a completely different style than the other classes.

Though, I'd go with Druid behind her, not the Necro.

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Quote from "Sixen" »

"One in every 10 million people can potentially have a headache from this pill." God forbid she is the 0.000000001% of having a headache.

A bit of thread necromancy here but Google still brings this page up occasionally.
For the love of christ, do NOT follow this guide people!
Get yourself a better guide from a more experienced person.
Honestly the majority of your items should be rare or crafted.
Or you could just not believe me and get your butt handed back to you in pubs.